One Flower
by FlightAngel
Summary: A Naruto Fairytale:: There once lived a beautiful princess who disappeared without a trace... eleven years later, the Uchiha Brothers stumble upon a blonde stranger in their path. Where will this story go? Sasunaru Kibahina Kakairu
1. Chapter One: Discover

**One Flower**

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By FlightAngel

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Disclaimer: The story is owned by me but the characters' and their backgrounds do not. Enjoy.

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_Chapter One: Discover_

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Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess who lived in a wondrous land filled with fantastic creatures such as unicorns and dragons and the like. She was so radiant, the blossoms bloomed in her presence, the sun shone brighter, the birds sang, and the men cooed at her without fail. She was the youngest of three, only five years old, and her beauty already shone like a star amongst her cute features. Mildly intelligent, a wonderful sense of humor, and a witty character, she was admired from afar. Yes, she was the perfect princess, in every which way.

However, one day, a dark magician browsing the land spotted her in her private meadow singing a tune that caught his interest at once. Immediately, he planned to take the cute child away from her warm home and bring her to his citadel of darkness and cold. After several days of planning, he snatched her one day from her meadow and, with much protest, disappeared with her into his fortress.

There, he performed much horrifying spells on her, until she was no longer the cute princess she was before. She was different… totally different.

And little did her brethren at the castle, who had frantically searched for her until all hope had failed, know that she would return one day, when her name had already become a legend for all to ponder upon…

.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.

"You damn coachman, can't you do anything right?" snarled the second son of the Uchiha Family from Northern Konoha, coal-black eyes hardened in fury. "Turn left, man, turn _left_!"

Said fumbling coachman struggled to get a good grip on his reins, face beaded with sweat. A dark, crisply dressed figure seated next to the furious aristocrat pursed his lips in a mildly amused manner.

"Oh, come now, Sasuke. There is really nothing to be yelling at the poor man about—you don't have to go so fast now, Shinta, rein in the horses a bit, that's a good lad—there's nothing to hurry over." Heir to the Uchiha Manor, Uchiha Itachi, hair brushed back in a neatly tied ponytail and sharp black hat sitting on his temples, took his gloves out of his breast pocket and pulled them onto his wrists. "I'm sure Neji wouldn't much care whether you arrive at his doorstep at three or at four."

Sasuke, who had hurriedly seated himself back into his normal, noble position on the seat covers, twitched irritably. "I am a man of my word, brother. When I say I'll be there by three, I _mean _I'll be there by three."

Itachi huffed a little, due to the bitter cold of their land at the time, as it was winter. "Haven't you ever heard of the term, 'fashionably late'?"

"Not on my list." was the sulky reply from the younger Uchiha sibling, as Sasuke had just realized the coachman really wouldn't be going any faster. "The relations between the Hyuuga Family and the Uchiha Family are going to be even more strained now, seeing as we don't keep our word."

"Our relations are already strained; it won't kill them to be strained even more."

Sasuke said nothing, and the two elapsed into a bitterly cold silence. Peering out the window, the ghostly white branches of the pines and oaks became visible while the floor was powdered with the morning's snow. The cloudy, stormy skies added to the chilling aura and Sasuke was suddenly very thankful of the heating inside the coach.

All of a sudden, in the smooth, mostly docile trip to Hyuuga Mansion, the coach comes to a sharp, screeching halt, throwing both noblemen roughly into the wall. Sasuke, who had been knocked against the metal very violently headfirst, felt slightly lightheaded on impact while Itachi, whose face had remarkably lost its almost expressionless feel to one of mild shock and annoyance, smoothly picked himself after realizing what had just happened and opened the coach door.

"Good lord," he snarled very coldly to Shinta, the cowering coachman, in a dark, angry voice, "what the hell are you doing?" Sasuke, who had recovered, joined his brother in the glaring. They were in the middle of the muddy road; a desolated route most coaches avoided and thus devoid of human life, out in the cold. Seeing as both Uchihas bore bruises or bumps against their heads and were thus very angry, the future looked very bleak for Shinta the Coachman.

Shakily jabbing a finger in the direction of the front of the vehicle, he jabbered, "T-there's someone in the r-road, sirs!" After a few moments, Itachi growled in annoyance when he realized his damn manservant actually wanted _him_ to come out of his warm, heated, coach compartment, gracefully slipped himself out of the coach, into the snow, and stalked to the front. Sasuke, who assumed this his brother had everything under control, became even more agitated at the prospect of this little roadblock to further delay his already late visit to the Hyuuga.

When Itachi approached the front, he immediately caught sight of what must be a person lying dimly in the snow, in the middle of the road. He whirled on the coachman.

"You didn't run him over, did you?"

"N-no! H-he was just laying there, and that's why I stopped, 'cause I didn't _want_ to run him over, and I h-have no idea why he's there, sir, b-but he was just _there_, and you r-really can't tell if he's really a _he_ sir, he _could_ be a she and—" Before the coachman could blab on any further, he found himself being dragged off his seat. The elder Uchiha pointed at the figure. "Lift him up."

Seeing as he didn't want to anger his master any further, Shinta obediently rushed to comply. The cold form was shaken off its snowy coating, revealing tousled blonde hair matted with dirt and a skinny form threatening to just wink itself out of existence.

Itachi motioned impatiently for him to put in the guests' compartment along with him and his brother, and the coachman was hasty to obey. He quickly opened the door, threw the figure at a rather surprised Sasuke, and rushed back to his seat in the front. Itachi soon entered the coach afterwards and in no time at all the horses were reined in and the coach was off.

Sasuke looked flabbergasted.

"Brother!"

"Yes?"

"Brother!"

"Yes—?"

"Brother!"

"Speak _up_, Sasuke!"

Sasuke regained control of his mouth, suddenly frantic. "Brother, what the hell did you just do? We're going up to the Hyuuga in less then twenty minutes and you just all of a sudden drag a random stranger into our coach?"

Itachi gives his sibling in inquiring look. "And what was I to do? Leave him there in the road to rot? Come now, even _I'm_ not that cold." Said figure lay limp and cold to the touch, thawing in the heat, sprawled across the floor of the coach. Sasuke wrinkled his nose in disgust, eyes gaining a nasty look him them as he edged away from the body.

"He could be _dead_, brother!"

"No, no, I tested him before I came in and he's got a heartbeat."

"But _brother_—"

"Oh, stop your whining, Sasuke. Deal with it. We can get him investigated and such when we reach the mansion; for now, just let him be."

Sasuke, after years of being schooled after Itachi's behavior and limitations, bit his lip hard and restrained himself from hotly retorting something he'd probably regret later, instead staring out the window.

He was now about fifteen minutes late. _Great_.

.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.

Uzumaki Kyuubi was the Honorable Second Prince of the kingdom of Konoha, temperamental, brash, red-headed and very good-looking—the heartthrob of the Konoha Castle. His older brother, Uzumaki Arashi, had become the Honorable Fourth King of Konoha three months earlier and was now currently busy with all his new duties, leaving Kyuubi completely free of the caretakers that had plagued him since childhood.

Being only a year apart in age, Arashi had long taken up his heavy duty of "Older Brother" and had gone to stop all of Kyuubi's sometimes frightening antics, including some almost-murders and insane-bouts-of-madness. To say the least, Kyuubi wasn't the friendliest guy in the kingdom, at times. Thus, he had always had two caretakers attached to him by the hip to make sure he wasn't off somewhere starting a war with Suna or something.

But now… he was free! Free! Free to do whatever he wanted… well, not really. Arashi, knowing that his brother would be off immediately causing mayhem somewhere, had loaded him with the heavy, age-old responsibility of looking for their younger sister, who had gone missing eleven years ago. Of course, this was, in Kyuubi's mind, an almost impossible task. She was only five when she disappeared, so in these eleven years she would have changed a lot from what she had been so long ago.

Previous investigations have already revealed that it was believed the dark magician, Orochimaru, was responsible for her disappearance. Orochimaru had a horrible reputation of transmuting his victims with spells, so that sometimes they weren't even human any longer. It was something so repugnant, it was never mentioned at the dinner table at the Uzumaki household… ever.

But now, he was being charged to search for his little sister, and that was what he was going to do. Grumbling to himself sharply, he pulled a small, wallet-sized photograph out of his pocket of him and his siblings together—Arashi, eleven, bright, spiky blonde hair sticking every which way and intent blue eyes staring outwards, arms slung across his siblings' shoulders; Kyuubi, ten, orange-to-red fiery hair grown to about shoulder length, a mass of tangles and wind-swept curves that fell over his piercing yellow eyes, a mischievous smirk playing at his lips as he stared at the camera; and the youngest, a girl—Naru. Naru, five, light blonde hair—short and cut to her chin, large blue eyes, like her brother, small and carrying a fox plushie in her hands as she gazed, confused, at the cameraman.

Kyuubi's memories of his long lost sister were not fuzzy, but very vivid—she had an aggravating obsession with both ramen and foxes, insisting that feeding the foxes in the courtyard with ten dishes of milk each day was something normal and not at all unusual, and that ramen made her grow taller.

She had been energetic and alive, singing her wild, forest tunes and playing with the multiple foxes that gathered to sip at the milk she left outside. He used to tease her about the fact that if she cut her hair loose to right above her ear, she'd look like a miniature female-Arashi, usually ending up with a hissing little princess at his ankles while Arashi scolded them in the background. It was fun and wild—those times when it was just them three, the orphans of the Royal Family.

After Naru disappeared, however, everything changed.

Kyuubi grew even brasher, wilder, more _violent_, while Arashi became more uptight, more careful, more _responsible_. It was the brothers' way to cope. After several failed investigations spanning over the length of four years, hope had simmered down to but a small drop. If she had not been found, she may be dead—if she was not dead, then Orochimaru's experiments would've gotten to her by then.

Arashi had quietly told his brother once that he wished that if he had a choice, he'd prefer his sister dead. At least then he'd have the reassurance that Naru had died a human being.

But as Kyuubi did not often like to think of such matters, he pushed the thought to the back of his mind as he crossed the chilling winter hunting lands owned by the Royal Family for decades. With his crossbow strapped across his back and his sword tucked away at his belt, he felt confident enough on his white stallion to wander off familiar territory and onto the Hyuuga Acres. Being that he wasn't legally supposed to be on this territory in the first place, he quietly hid in the underbrush as he giddily sneaked around the trees.

It was no fun abiding by the rules. Breaking them was much more exciting.

_Arashi's going to have a _stroke _when he hears of this,_ the Honorable Second Prince thought to himself happily as he carefully removed his crossbow from its scabbard. Spotting a possible prey, he carefully lead his horse towards some snowy bushes and leveled the cross-hairs on his bow to the innocent snow hare, never knowing what's coming after it…

_SCREECH!_

Bam! The thing had darted away right before the arrow hit, on account of the loud screeching noise echoing about the wood, shaking the snowy foliage until white powder fell from their branches. Kyuubi cursed under his breath, looking sideways in an annoyed fashion at what had just scared his prey away. There—parked at the roadside, a midnight black coach and four stallions neighing nervously in the front—was the thing that had scared the rabbit away.

Before Kyuubi could let his rage take control of him and give the owners of the coach a piece of his mind, he saw the Uchiha Fan engraved on the back of the vehicle, dull white and red, and bit his lip. Dammit. He couldn't scream at the frickin' _Uchihas_. Besides, now that he thought about it, screaming at them would only reveal his position on Hyuuga land.

This day just gets better and better.

"You didn't run him over, did you?" drifts a cool, angered voice, and his victim babbles something incoherent. Kyuubi, being immediately interested, sidles up against a close tree and watched as the elder Uchiha—Itachi, he thinks his name was—order his coachman to haul up a body from the road… a blonde body…

Ding, ding, ding. Warning bells were going off in his head. When they first went off to search for their sister, Arashi had, though unwillingly, taught his younger siblings some tips to help find a missing person—if any mysterious people show up anywhere, if anyone has recently lost a memory, if someone appears uncertain about their past and if someone was obviously lying through their teeth.

It was a very low chance, but Kyuubi really had nothing better to do then shoot innocent snow hares and eat them for breakfast. This could, though he'd hate to admit it, get tedious after a while.

Thus, when the coach slowly drove off, making its way to Hyuuga Mansion, a large white stallion trailed behind…

.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.

Hyuuga Hinata had always been a rather docile woman. Being the quiet heiress to the Hyuuga estate, she often shuffled her way through the halls with a silent purpose, whether it was to help mend clothing or serve dinner, and, altogether, attracted little attention. Her cousin, Neji, was the true power behind the entire workings of the Hyuuga Family—she knew that she had become little less then a figurehead for the rest of the community.

Despite all this, however, Hinata found that she didn't mind as much. She knew she was a very kind leader—too kind, and much too submissive—and wouldn't have done well with ruling the Hyuuga Family. It was for the best; having Neji rule for her while she did much quieter, though not any less important, tasks in the household.

Such as now—the Uchiha brothers' acclaimed visit to the Hyuuga Mansion at last was now currently occurring in the first living room in the Hyuuga Main Wing, while she, as she always did these kinds of tasks, took care of their rather unusual companion.

"Lay the person on that bed over there, please," she very kindly commanded their poor coachman, who looked thoroughly harassed, "and fetch me that ointment over there. Yuri," the maid, the one that always giggled whenever her cousin passed by, without fail, "get me some hot water and some soap. Also tell the cook to send some soup and mild foods up here; this man over here is in desperate need of some pampering." Rolling up her sleeves in her own determined way, she set to work to reveal the figure from his layers of mystery.

First checking his person, she confirmed her hunch that he was not physically injured in any way, though there were two odd unidentifiable bulges about his head and an uncanny scent wafting from his being. The figure was about half a head taller then her, though seemed much more thin.

Cutting open his frozen clothes from his body with a pair of shears reveal that, indeed, the figure was a man, though terribly skinny and underfed. After taking a sponge and using the hot water to wipe the man down (he was now completely naked on the bed, much to the amusement of the maids that passed by), the dirt cleared and revealed tan skin and… something else.

Hinata, in all her years of working as the part-time nurse of her household, had never seen anything like it. Her face immediately turned crimson red and she quickly covered the man's nether regions with a towel and ran off somewhere to calm her beating heart.

After ten minutes, she returned, calm and as determined as ever, intent to ignore what she had just found and instead focus on the man's fever. The soup was brought over and she handfed him, careful to make sure he breathed and accepted the food.

After all that could be done was done, she wiped her hands on the towel next to the door, shuffled her way to the living room, and poked her head into the room in which her beloved cousin and his guests were currently staying.

"N-Neji-niisan, I-I've taken care o-of the m-man…"

Now, Neji is very different from his quiet, in-the-background cousin. Strikingly handsome, the brunette kept his sweeping chocolate-brown hair behind his shoulders and was known for his clipped, rather arrogant personality. Despite some grumbling from Main Family members who knew that Neji was behind every order Hinata gave, he was an excellent leader and had improved the Hyuuga's already powerful stance in their country by many degrees.

Not only did his leadership skills contribute to the Hyuuga's success, but his charisma was, to say the least, not at all bad. For example, he could hold a conversation with Itachi for more then half and hour and still appear to be nonchalant. Hinata, on the other hand, would just fall in a heap of stutters and appear flustered.

Neji, who had been lounging in his personal armchair, nodded at his cousin curtly, "Thank you Hinata-sama. Itachi-sama," he gestured towards the said Uchiha, "this is my cousin, the heiress to the Hyuuga fortune, Hyuuga Hinata. Hinata, this is Uchiha Itachi, the heir to the Uchiha Manor, and his younger brother, Uchiha Sasuke." Sasuke gave the other noble an acknowledging nod, looking slightly angry at Neji's choice to not address him directly.

Itachi clucked, amused. "My, look who's in charge here." Neji's expression hardened into one of quick anger, before quickly smoothing out to cover up for his error. Hinata shyly smiled at the younger Uchiha, before turning towards her cousin.

Neji asked, as if on cue, "So how is their companion doing?"

"Fine," was the small answer, "His temperature's still very high—a hundred two degrees, maybe—but he's fed and his breathing is normal. He is much underfed, however, and most probably needs intent care for the next two or three days. I've checked him over; he's got multiple scars running down his arms and legs, blonde hair, blue eyes, odd lumps some places, but that can be investigated later, and…" She shifted her eyes, feeling the rush of blood hurrying towards her face, "I found something… very interesting."

"Oh, _do _tell." Itachi remarked. Even Sasuke looked vaguely curious, eyes sparkling a little in anticipation although the rest of his face and body remained as aloof as ever.

Hinata looked uncomfortable, glancing at her cousin, to the guests, back to her cousin, and needed the confirming nod from Neji to continue speaking. "He's… he's… well, I checked him over and he's got… he has, well…" She clears her throat. "He has… both male and female parts."

Itachi's and Sasuke's eyebrows shot up into their hairlines.

"He's got vagina?" Itachi said, astonished, and Sasuke immediately jabbed his elbow into his brother's ribs, eyes stern. The elder Uchiha made up for his mistake by suddenly having a coughing fit in a handkerchief he pulled out of his pocket. Hinata's face was burning red and she, out of pure habit, attempted to hide behind the living room door.

"Y-yes… I do not know what is up, but all we can do is wait. Wait for him to wake up and, hopefully, inform us about his reasons for lying in the middle of the road…"

Neji nodded.

"Meanwhile," he gestured at the Uchiha brothers, "You are both welcome to stay at our estate for the night. You _are_ our prestigious guests, after all."

Itachi nodded at him curtly, "I'll accept your offer, Hyuuga. My brother and I are tired and wish to retire early today so we can get a head start on our journey back to our manor tomorrow." He gave Hinata a flickered glance, "Also, the man we found. Sasuke and I would gladly take the responsibility of taking care of him, as we were the ones who found him."

"Oh, no," Neji waved it off, "he was on _our_ land. We will take responsibility over him."

"No, no, no, I _insist_."

"Please. It won't be much trouble; he's already at the Hyuuga Mansion already."

"Neji-sama," Sasuke said, for the first time, respectfully, "My brother and I are currently free of any major duties assigned to us from our family, while I know personally that the Hyuuga are very busy right now. I think it is only fair for us, who have very little to do, to take care of this lone stranger."

Neji looked mildly defeated and Itachi, smug. Hinata wondered if she should leave.

"Very well then, Uchiha. We will let you take care of him. Nevertheless, I think it is only fair for my cousin to take care of him for tonight." He turns toward said cousin, who looked very, very frightened, "Right, Hinata-sama?"

"R-right," she confirmed quietly, before ducking behind the door and hurriedly shuffling down the hall.

"That's that," Neji clapped and a servant suddenly appeared, very quickly by his side. "Toshiro, lead these two to the guest rooms upstairs. Have a pleasant stay, Uchiha."

_I don't like it how he only refers to us as one Uchiha,_ Sasuke thought to himself sulkily before following the servant upstairs.

.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.

Uchiha Sasuke had a tolerance for most things, utter disgust for a few, and unbelievable no-way-in-hells for some others. After being lead to the guest rooms, he had, very disconcertingly, found that there was only one bed.

"I find it very hard to believe," he said blankly as he stared at the giant king-sized mattress, overflowing with white bed sheets and coverlets, "that the Hyuuga only have one-bed guest rooms and that all the other guest rooms are full."

"The Hyuuga are very busy people," his brother replied coolly as he set their baggage in a corner. "Besides, you're never too old to sleep with your brother, you know!"

Sasuke wasn't so much as disgusted as annoyed. It was true—when he was younger, where the dark still scared the wits out of him and he still believed in cooties, he'd slept in his brother's bed many times, mostly due to Itachi's secret fetish for telling ghost stories at night. They'd also slept in the same bed that one time their parents miscalculated their stay at some foreign country and there were only two single-bed rooms left for the hotel to spare for the four-member Uchiha Family. Therefore, the prospect of sharing a bed with Itachi wasn't an entirely barbaric idea, though there were some things Sasuke had learned to dread. Itachi wasn't exactly the best sleep-partner in the entire world.

"What do you make of the he-she?"

"That man? Odd, but I can't judge him until he awakens."

"True."

Sasuke looked up to see his brother wearing a familiar blue robe with the Uchiha symbol sewed very neatly on its back. Their mother had a rather disconcerting hobby of sewing the damn symbol anywhere she damned please. It grew tiring after a while, so the brothers left her to it. That resulted in their socks being covered in the fans, all their shirts, their hats, even their _underwear_, for goodness' sake, and anything else that was cloth-related that she could get her hands on.

"Brother, that's _mine!_"

"So?"

"It's too short for you, Brother. Give it back! Mother had one sewn for you too you know; yours is black. Where is it, anyways?"

"I let Kisame borrow it that time when he got massacred by geese at the local marsh."

"So you stole mine?"

"Borrowed," the elder Uchiha corrected him, before taking out some paperwork from his folder and setting it on the table situated against the wall opposite the bed, "I borrowed your robe."

Sasuke frowned. "And did you just so happen to borrow my pajamas as well?"

"No, they're too tight. Here, Sasuke, be a dear and get me some more ink, now, would you?"

"No." Despite what was coming out of his mouth, Sasuke found himself outside the door and walking down the spiraling stairs anyway. His brother was good like that.

.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.

Somewhere, in a brilliant white room, one blonde-haired hermaphrodite awoken with a start from a hazy dream that left his mind as soon as he tried to recall it. Breath heavy, eyes wide, he fumbled a bit in his bed sheets. Reaching a trembling, though sure, hand upwards, he ran it through his hair in horror, looking around.

Where was he? Who was he? _What_ was he?

He said the first thing that came to mind.

"…hello?"

.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.

AN: Yes... I know there are so many OOC's here, it's not funny. First attempt at a fairytale story! Yes... I know I suck at the whole Naruto thing . I am totally open for ideas on how to continue/end this. R/R but no flaming... and I can't really take critiques that well. So if you're willing to endure a tantrum from me, then by all means critique. Anyways... thanks for reading this far! Yay, readers... (Flight is hopeful someone will come along and review XD. Flight is even more hopeful that someone will come along and give her more ideas...)


	2. Chapter Two: Messenger

**One Flower**

.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.

By FlightAngel

.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.

Disclaimer: The story is owned by me but the characters' and their backgrounds do not. Enjoy.

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_Chapter Two: Messenger _

.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.

The Honorable Fourth King of Konoha Arashi wanted to take the nearest torch and chuck it, rather unceremoniously, at the Captain of the Royal Guard.

Never mind the fact he was one of the best soldiers in the all the kingdom, never mind the fact that he was currently dating the Head Librarian who, though quietly, ran everything that went on in the palace, and _definitely_ never mind the fact that he was his old student and killing old students was _not_ on the "Good King's List to Do".

"Kakashi," he managed to get out between tightly clenched teeth, "can you _please_ refrain yourself from reading those novels in front of the entire Suna Representatives?"

Said Suna Representatives looked at the silver-haired guard expectantly.

Hatake Kakashi peered at them above his orange-jacket book. "…no."

The king gave up.

"My," murmured the neighboring King of Suna, Gaara, who had been sitting quietly at the other end of the table the entire time, "you have such _odd_ guards here, King Arashi."

"Oh," _fake it,_ he thought to himself desperately, _fake it_, "Yes, Kakashi's always been like that. _Anyways_, we were discussing your help in searching for my sister…?"

The redhead glanced to the side at his siblings and advisor.

Arashi remembered them all—Gaara, the youngest, but strong, led the powerful Suna people just north of Konoha; Kankuro, his brother and a master actor and puppeteer, and his sister, Temari, often accompanied him wherever he went. Shukaku, his advisor, also slinked behind them every so often, never saying a word, though sometimes drooling at Kyuubi a bit.

Arashi had always felt his overprotective brother senses bristling.

He'd known about the Sand's visit beforehand and had hurriedly sent his brother out for some pre-searching before he could find out about the meeting… Shukaku looked rather depressed that a certain fiery-headed prince wasn't attending.

"Why," Gaara responded coolly, "should we assist a country we barely get along with? What would we receive in return?" Temari and Kankuro's faces remained cold and indifferent as they intently eyed the other king expectantly. Arashi drummed his fingers against the varnished wooden table; he'd already planned his persuasive speech a week ago, taking three hours instead of one as Kyuubi had just then decided to make his brother's life a living hell by trying to steal his papers.

He'd practiced this. He could do this.

"After searching on our own for almost eleven years," he began, "we soon discovered that the person responsible for our sister's kidnapping was Orochimaru." He looked into each of the three (or four, if he counted Shukaku, whom he doesn't because that guy was just too creepy for his own good) faces, determined. "I know for sure that Orochimaru was the one that caused chaos in your country. He killed your previous king, yes?"

A flinch. That was good.

"If you help us retrieve the princess, there is the without doubt the consequence of punishing Orochimaru. To find her, we must track down this Orochimaru character and try to eliminate him. We get the princess and you get your revenge."

The Suna Representatives were silent for a bit, thoughtful. Finally, the advisor, Shukaku, leaned down to whisper into his king's ear: "Sir, I do not think this is a bad plan at all. We both get equal amounts of reward and, by helping them, strengthen our bond with Konoha. They are a powerful country and will be helpful if they are on our side."

Gaara looked slightly considerate, though his lips pursed when Shukaku first spoke. Temari and Kankuro glanced at each other from behind the two's backs. Finally nodding to himself, he faced the other king.

"…I see the point on your argument. Alright, Suna will accompany you on this… search. But," his cyan eyes clouded in anger, "you will hand Orochimaru over to us after he is captured so we can… deal… with him."

Arashi nodded, pleased that he had won. They spent the next hour or two riffling through the paperwork and contracts, sometimes sending Kakashi down to the Library to retrieve some documents they needed, and finally finished up the negotiations. Carefully standing up from where he had been seated, he and Gaara exchanged polite bows and went their separate ways. Well, _almost_ went their separate ways.

Shukaku, that awful little fat thing, turned around and quietly addressed the rather perverted Head of the Royal Guard.

"Hatake-san… can you give this to Kyuubi, please? When he comes back?"

Kakashi took the flimsy paper and stuffed it into his pocket, never once looking from his orange book. "Yeah, sure."

Arashi turned white with fury.

Damn advisor. Wish he would jump off a cliff or something.

.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.

Kiba could not possibly think on how the day could get any better. First, when he'd awoken, he'd found out that there was still some of yesterday's meatloaf left in the icebox. After that, he and Akamaru had a splendid time in the Inuzuka Meadows, which was white with snow, romping around and catching winter butterflies. There was that one Aburame boy—Shino—wandering around the land, as the Aburame Family and the Inuzuka Family had a contract of property, who would occasionally come by and try to stop him from crushing the butterflies to death.

"You're a grown man, Kiba," the other man would say stiffly, adjusting his glasses, "who hasn't the time to spend dawdling about the meadows."

"Oh, shut up," he'd whine, crossing his legs, "I'm only sixteen; give me a break!"

Personally, the Inuzuka thought that the age limit of Konoha—sixteen—was just complete bogus. Sure, he had the luxury of being able to drink the finest wines, drive the best coaches, start owning land and getting married, but did it _have_ to come to him so fast? Sometimes he just wished he could crawl back into his mother's arms and fall asleep… not like he'd ever done that, as his mother would have promptly kicked him out of the house.

But beside the whole Shino-and-the-butterfly thing, everything was going splendidly. He didn't have to pay the rent or do any chores, he'd eaten some well-deserved pudding for lunch that rivaled even his mother's, and just found out he'd be going to visit his favorite Hyuuga Girl this afternoon.

"Really?" He said, quite astonished when Hatake-san handed him his new order from the king, "So King Arashi's really going to go after that Orochimaru guy?"

The Captain just shrugged, pulling his armor off while somehow keeping a hand on his orange book. "He'd been wanting to go after him for years, you know. The only reason he hadn't gone was because—"

"—he needed backup from neighboring kingdoms just in case other kingdoms decided to try and conquer Konoha while he's gone, I know, _I know_." Eyes bright with excitement, the Inuzuka was eager to go out of his way to visit his—_ahem, _perform his Guard duties, and rushed to pull on his armor.

After being forced to get a "real job" (evidently, his mother didn't seem to think that being a clerk was a real job), he'd finally decided to join the Royal Guard, as most of his friends were there already. Some of the said friends accompanying him to visit his _sweet, quiet, shy_ _Hinata-chan_… er, Hinata-sama. Yeah. Heh.

Hatake-san, completely out of uniform and looking like just any other peasant out in the streets, consulted his watch. "Okay, okay, the assignment was to get to the Hyuuga Household by at least seven at night… consult with Neji-san about sending some of their family to help with the rescue… possibly go over the Uchiha estates and consult about the same thing with Itachi-san… and come back at _at least_ four o' clock tomorrow morning. Got that?"

"Yes sir." chorused most of the five messengers, along with a couple of off-beat "Yeah" and "Uh-huh"s. Hatake-san gave them the salute and immediately the men went to their stations.

Soon, five black stallions made their way out into the snow and up into the hills leading to the Hyuuga Estate.

Five men: Kiba, who was in a good mood, despite the whipping snow lashing at his face in cold drifts; Shikamaru, who just looked tired, kept mumbling about how he didn't want to see Neji after being beaten by the Hyuuga in their last game of shogi; Chouji, who wanted food; Shino, who, despite not being part of the guard, tagged along anyways because he didn't want his friend (yes, he considered Kiba his friend… an annoying, smelly friend, that is) to openly molest the poor Hyuuga woman too badly; and Sai… who was just there.

"I _hate_ snow," Shikamaru mumbled to himself as he was slapped—once again—by a mound of the white stuff as it detached itself from the branches of the tree and collided into his cheek. "My jacket's all wet…"

"I just want food," Chouji whined as he clamped down his struggling stallion, who looked seriously strained from carrying so much weight at once, "I'm really, really hungry… do you guys think Neji-sama would have some food? 'Cause I want food…"

"We know." Shikamaru replied dryly.

Shino just said nothing, just adjusted his glasses and effortlessly lead his stallion on front of the others. Sai… just disappeared. Somewhere. Kiba reasoned he'd fallen into a ditch and didn't think about it too much.

"Light!" Chouji called out, suddenly pointing a chubby finger ahead, where the shape of a vaguely lit mansion came into being, "We're almost there!"

"Wait, wait, wait!" Shikamaru slid his stallion in front of the others and everyone in the messenger party came to a sudden screeching halt. "There's someone there!"

Kiba squinted in the distance.

Indeed, a shadowy figure was treading through the snow in a monotonous pace. He was close enough to see that the figure had ruffled blonde hair and an ashen face. No wonder. The man was wearing nothing but a thin night-gown and white pants!

"By the Gods," Shikamaru cursed to himself as he lowered himself from the stallion. Trying to stand against the billowing snowstorm, he shouted at the man: "What the hell are you doing? Do you want to freeze to death?" The wind blew his words across the snowy plains, echoing them back and forth. _Death, death, death, _death…

They watched a moment as the figure came closer and closer, until he was only a few steps away from them. His lips were a shade of unsettling blue, deeper and more purple then his lost cerulean eyes. Stumbling into the closest messenger he saw—Shikamaru—he whispered, "Where am I?"

No answer.

Again, he whispered, "Where am I? Who… am I? Who are… you?"

"What do we do?" Chouji whispered loudly at Shino, who just looked irritated. Shikamaru, who knew the signs of frostbite and such by heart, hit the figure hard in the stomach. He dropped like a stone.

"Shikamaru!"

"It was the easiest way," Shikamaru muttered under his breath, effortlessly lifting the blonde onto his horse. "He was disillusioned and might have suffered from hyperthermia. We'll bring him to the Hyuuga Household when we get there… actually, seeing as he was so close to us, he might have come from there for all we know. Anyways, we'll get there, into the warm cozy fire-lit house, and discuss it when we're sane again, alright?"

The three other men exchanged glances and nodded, agreeing.

They set off again… five, except the fifth was unconscious while their real fifth wondered why everything had turned to cold…

.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.

Hyuuga Hinata was surprised the first time when the blonde man came into her hands, battered and bruised. She was horrified when he was brought in a second time, shivering and possibly suffering from hyperthermia.

"Fire!" She had actually screamed at her maids, who had all jumped at least three feet in the air, "Right now!"

"But my lady!"

"Now!"

Meanwhile, in the _other_ living room, Neji met up with the five messengers.

"Of course," Neji answered the messengers breezily, cocking his head in an informative way, "the Hyuuga Family will be flattered to help assist the king in his search. Being that we Hyuuga have faithfully served the kingdom of Konoha for generations… I think it is only proper if I assist you."

"Hyuuga-san!" the two maids behind him gasped. "B-but—what will the Hyuuga Mansion do without you?"

Neji responded by turning towards the door.

"HINATA!"

"Yes!" The woman appeared almost instantly at the doorway, "Neji-niisan!"

"I am going away on order of the king." He swiftly turned towards her, all business. "You, on the other hand, will stay here and take my place temporarily while I'm off. Be sure that the Hyuuga Estate does not fall into wrong hands. Also—what are you doing? Take a notebook out and write this down, woman!"

Kiba's eyes narrowed at the elder Hyuuga's treatment of his one and only beloved Hinata-chan, who look harried and scared to the bone. Of course, Shikamaru had taken a good hold of his wrists so he wouldn't be able to lash out at such a high ranking noble as Hyuuga Neji… not that he wanted to. No, really.

"—after the ambassadors from the Mikuzi clan come, try and tidy up the farmlands: we don't want to look like a bunch of primitive beasts. Afterwards, _make sure_ the front door is always barred, because those damned robbers keep crawling up in the night, and _whatever you do_, do _not_ attempt to hand this duty to someone else." Hinata looked up long enough to see Neji's creepy if-you-dare-something-bad-will-happen grin. "Or else there will be… consequences."

She gulped.

"Y-y-yes N-Neji-niisan!"

"What's going on here?"

The voice was demanding and sharp, drawing everyone's attention to the long, spiraling staircase that led to the Hyuuga Guestrooms upstairs. Cool and elegant, one Uchiha Itachi glided down the steps dressed in a dark blue night robe, irritated. Behind him trailed the less graceful, sleepier Uchiha Sasuke, looking tired, and wearing a white Hyuuga robe he'd borrowed from a maid because _someone_ had taken his own.

When no one answered, Itachi demanded again. "What's going on here?"

"M-messengers from the King, Itachi-sama!" Hinata squeaked and Kiba very casually held her hand for reassurance. She gripped it with a grip that could rival steel.

Neji looked slightly ticked off.

"The King?" Itachi's eyes drifted towards the five…er, four messengers. "What does his majesty want with the Hyuuga and not the Uchiha?"

Shikamaru coughed. "Actually, we were informed to let you know that the King requests the Uchiha to send men for the Princess Naru's search party as well. It is so… fortunate that you are here as well. Kills two birds with one stone."

Itachi sniffed. "Don't say that. I like birds."

"My deepest apologies."

"Brother…" Sasuke still looked rather out of it, rubbing his eyes in such a manner that even the coldest villain would say "Aww…" "Brother, what search party?"

Itachi, who was used to his brother's disillusioned state whenever he was sleepy, petted the younger man absently on the head, "The party that's going off to look for the missing Princess."

"…" The young sixteen-year old stared at him a while, before declaring, "I want to go!"

"What? The Uchiha Brothers too?" The maids started to chatter among themselves top-speed as Sasuke looked at his brother with a dazed expression on his face.

"Why's that, Sasuke?" Itachi said slowly, as if talking to a child. Sasuke giggled (giggled!) and poked his brother in the arm.

"That way… I won't have to be there when Mother finds out I dyed all her panties black! Ha!"

Everyone stared at the man as he turned away and trudged down the hall in the direction of the medicine room, then turned their attention back to Itachi. He coughed. "Please… excuse my younger brother. You can tell he isn't exactly right-minded when he doesn't get his sleep."

Neji nodded, understanding. Shikamaru and Kiba exchanged glances while Shino and Chouji stood in the background, nonchalant.

Itachi coughed again, "Anyways, the Uchiha are honored to send men in to help search. As there are those troublesome bandits going about these days, I'm afraid I can't personally go along with you. However, I _will_ take up my brother's offer—whether he really meant it or not—and send him with you. That'll suffice, correct?"

Shikamaru nodded.

"Alright, then." Itachi lost his cool demeanor for a moment and scratched his head, face suddenly deterring back into one of tiredness, "I'm gonna get some coffee…"

"I think we all need some," Neji said dryly.

.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.

Naruto was confused. And cold. You can't forget that damn cold—the kind that froze you from the toes up and made your fingers go all numb. He didn't know anything… his brain was like one of a deep, dark void… the least he could come up with, the only memory he remembered in that void was a slithery voice calling out—"…and you shall be Naruto, little one…"

Thus, the name.

Unfortunately, his name was the only thing he had left with him now.

Groggy and feeling quite heavy all of a sudden, he frowned and opened up his eyes. White. A white room. Where was he? Wait… he was here before. The first time he'd opened his eyes, he'd panicked and attempted to—_escape, get out, no, no, no, let go of me, I want to go home, _stop, _don't touch me there—_run away, somehow ending up in the snow.

After pain, he'd woken up again in the same room. Slowly sitting himself up in the layers of soft, velvety blankets, he peered about, this time intent on trying to get to know his surroundings. He didn't recognize what was covering him, nor the thing he was sitting on. The walls—he knew they were walls, at least—were bare and white, and there were weird… boxes with wheels set everywhere with more little boxes on top of them.

Everything was foreign. Everything was new.

A large door opened and a man… with a large chest entered. "Hello?" He called out towards Naruto, who shrank away in horror, "Are you awake?" His voice was high—higher then what Naruto could remember. He was dressed in an odd piece of cloth with weird designs and had on chain-like linen strapped to his ankles. Naruto had never seen anything more terrifying.

"A-ah—" The poor blonde scrabbled at the white blankets and did the only thing he knew he could do when his memory was at such a primitive state: "_Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah_!"

"What the hell?"

.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.

Sasuke was not in the best of moods. After being awoken from his sleep because he was a rather light sleeper by the muttering voices from downstairs, he had gone through all of what Itachi called the "Sasuke-moods".

First was ecstasy, or the feeling of being high. After that, nausea, which usually caused him to heave up his breakfast or dinner or whatever he'd just eaten if he tried to walk. Finally, moodiness and an altogether unpleasant demeanor. Which he was in now.

After having his already aching head pierced by what might be considered the loudest scream to walk on the face of the earth, he wasn't happy, to say the least. Intending to give whoever had emitted the scream a piece of his mind, he opened the door purposefully.

Whatever he had just wanted to say died his mouth the minute he saw whoever was screaming. It was the blonde man… but much cleaner. And… prettier. Definitely prettier. Blonde hair poking in every which way, large blue eyes and pouty pink lips… which were pulled apart in another ear-piercing scream.

"_Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee_!"

The maid, who looked horrified and scared, took one look at the Uchiha's face, squeaked, and fled.

Once the maid was gone, the blonde stopped his screeching and calmed down, breathing hard and face slightly red from the effort of screaming for so long, eyes darting and suspicious as they latched onto Sasuke. He attempted to hide himself in the blankets.

Sasuke's mouth was dry. Maybe it was because it'd been open for so long. Clamping it shut, he finally managed to say, "Uh… ok? Is something wrong?"

Silence. The man—who looked about sixteen, Sasuke's age—looked terrified, confused, and angry at the same time, curling up in a protective ball and looking at the Uchiha behind the protection of his arms.

"Where…"

Sasuke looked at him as the blonde attempted to find words. His mouth worked awkwardly; it was as if he had not spoken for a long time. Heck, it was like he hadn't been exposed to anything in a long time, like he had been trapped in a closet all his life or something.

"Where… am… I?"

Sasuke just couldn't resist.

"You… are… in… the… Hyuuga… estate…" he answered mockingly, speaking as if to a toddler. The man looked confused before an angry look flickered upon his face.

"A-are you making fun of m-me?" he demanded in a shaky, unsteady voice. His voice was melodic, and Sasuke realized that the combination of male and female organs must have given the man his neutral type of voice.

"No… not really. What's your name?" The blonde didn't reply, just stared at him hollowly. Sasuke felt tired. Very tired. "Okay, okay, I'll go first, idiot. I'm Sasuke… the _second son_ of the Uchiha Estate. As you can see, I am not as _treasured_, per se, as the _first son_, my brother, Itachi, in my family. We—Itachi and I, that is—brought you here when visiting the Hyuuga."

The man paused. He was, to say the least, looking very confused. Sasuke admitted that he found the man—hermaphrodite, that is, but he appeared to have the face of a feminine man, so that is what he called him—rather attractive in his own way, which caught him by surprise.

Unusual.

"N-Naruto…"

"Naruto?" he asked blankly, sidling up him casually, "Isn't that a type of fish bento or something?"

The other man just stared at him.

"…I don't know."

Did this guy know anything?

Sasuke sighed. It had been a long time since he'd attempted to court a woman… man… woman-man-thing… if he'd ever done so. Especially not woman-man-things that have no recollection of their past and could barely speak.

Yeah, this was going to be hard.

.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.

AN: Haven't updated for a while... because I have gotten myself engrossed into Sims2 again XD. Sorry for the delay! I know it kind of skips and I have some holes everywhere, with all the technology limits and stuff, but hopefully, everything is moderately making sense. Please R/R and thanks for all my reviewers! Yes, I will update! I mean, half the reviews I get are 'update'! so what else do I say...? And thank you for the reviewers who thought my writing was decent. Yay! Also... the flamer, go jump off a cliff and die. Hahahaha... like Shukaku. But I like Shukaku, so he gets to live.


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